During the course of Wednesday's UK-Nigeria meeting, we found ourselves contemplating the realities of education at Fantsuam. For that was among the traditionally vast range of topics covered in a session which also spanned everything from Sickle Cell Disease to Mozzi-Mort!

It was interesting to learn that students at Fantsuam are being introduced to Twitter on the diploma course. However, concern was naturally raised that, once they leave the academy, they either competely lose internet access or can - at best - expect very limited online opportunities.

John consulted the team and, as ever, a possible solution was suggested. It was felt that a good idea would be to offer a small discount to students during the course of their training and also again once they have graduated.

The crucial topic of open source software proved the highlight of Wednesday's weekly online UK-Nigeria meeting.

Interestingly, the UK side were informed that Linux is a key part of the curriculum on the 'IT Essentials' Cisco course, run by Fantsuam staff.

It was explained to us that the first approach is to introduce the students to the basic concept of open source.

Kelechi told us that part of the students' installation module includes installing Linux as well as Windows. We also learned from John, a trainer, that most of Fantsuam's students are very familiar with Ubuntu.

We were extremely interested to learn that Kelechi is currently testing another open source e-learning platform called Dokeos. He explained that it is built on Php and uses mysql as database.

He is hopeful that this system will help him administer the students' exams and tests online. He also hopes that this may help to reduce the costs of materials and presumably administrative costs too.

Dadamac has recently set up an Open Source Special Interest Group where team members can learn more about the subject together.

I'm covering two events - First the GlobalNet 21 Meet-up called "The Path To Development -Trade or Aid" (yesterday evening) and secondly the March First Thursday meeting (this afternoon) which predictably did not go as planned - but was a great session involving people from three continents, eight countries and a confusing number of time zones. First Thursday was supposed to last for "about an hour' - on permaculture (especially kitchen gardens and jatropha), but went on longer, and then turned into to Special Interest Group, on Skype, about appropriate power. We started at 12.00 noon (London time) and rounded up some time after  a participant in Kuala Lumpur commented that he was sorry he had to leave, as he had exams in the morning and, for him, it was already around 12.00 midnight.

The Peoples Open Access Education Initiative: Peoples-uni continues to go from strength to strength. It is now open for enrollments for the first semester 2010. It is offering 12 courses, including a new one, and one offered in two additional languages. Dadamac is proud to have been associated with People's Uni from its very earliest days. Professor Dick Heller (Coordinator of the Peoples-uni) has asked us to share the following information:

This is to tell you that we are now open for enrolments for the first semester 2010. We have 12 course modules, including one new 'Public Health Nutrition'. One of the modules, 'Public Health Concepts for Policy Makers' is also offered in French and Spanish versions.

We are learning the lessons from each semester as we go, and are working closely with Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK to try and develop a partnership that will allow students to receive an academic award from them on the basis of study with Peoples-uni. We remain on the lookout for other similar linkages. We have a further number of new modules in development, and various other plans and changes.

Yesterday, after John Iruaga had finished his Twitter learning session, I went out to the February networking event of the British African Federation (BAF).  Topics included:investments; Business Safari Missions; low-cost migrant remittances, micro-finance, micro-savings and currency exchange; business match-making and mentoring; a new weapon against mosquitos (and cockroaches); tractors and a trade mission. As a result there are  introductions to make and activities I would like to see happen.

So... how is the Internet actually changing opportunities to learn? Does the phrase "death of distance" really mean anything? Here's a quick example from this afternoon (February 25th) when John Iruaga who was in Nigeria sent his first Tweet, helped via Skype by Andy Broomfield who was in the UK. It was a spontaneous bit of teaching. It happened simply because Andy was sitting next to me, working on his laptop, when I bumped into John Iruaga on Skype.

i knew that John Dada had asked John Iruaga to find out about social networking, so Twitter was on his learning agenda. True tweeters may think the whole thing is totally intuitive - but I, for one, didn't find it so. When I first went to Twitter I had never seen any one else Tweeting and had no idea what to expect. When I logged in (because someone told me I should) I had no clue what I was trying to do or why. I went round in circles a few times and ended up none the wiser. I knew that John Iruaga, like me, would start out as a complete Twitter newbie. 

Sickle Cell Awareness day was created by the United Nations to recognise Sickle Cell Disease as a global health crisis.

Member states were urged to raise awareness of this terrible genetic disease on June 19 each year. 

And John Dada and his team at Fantsuam Foundation have already started to action this call.

At yesterday's weekly UK/Nigeria Dadamac team meeting, John explained that a SCD support meeting had been held at Fantsuam last Saturday .  A  documentary in collaboration with the Abuja SC Support group is being prepared for showing on this year's Global SC Day.
 
Those interested can view my previous blog entry about the daunting task faced by John and his team, who are battling overwhelming need with severely limited resources.

The Fantsuam Sickle Cell Support Group meeting is held on the third Saturday of  every  month. Support groups are usually comprised of people  who have either been affected or are carers. Attendance is growing each month  - with more than 80 people at last Saturday's meeting. 

Due to the vast numbers there is a need to change the venue, so canopies under mango trees at the fishfarm will be used for future meetings.  Attendees came from as far away as Akwanga (about 80km from Kafanchan) and John said he " just felt helpless in face of such need."

The meetings are for networking, with parents and carers sharing information about how they are coping. A nurse councellor answers  questions and gives advice on how to cope with sickling crisies.

At our Wednesday's UK/Nigeria online meeting, as we routinely tackled the business on the agenda sometimes, I forget our geographical and cultural differences so it was helpful to be reminded of them this week.

As Pam and I were shivering here in the UK, with the threat of snow forecasted, the team in Nigeria told us about the fierce heat that they are currently experiencing (as they wait for the 'rains' to come.)

In fact John is sleeping under the stars at night as the temperature outdoors is more comfortable!

How I envy him... I would gladly swap my 15 tog duvet and central heating. For even if it were summer and warm enough, sadly I would not have felt safe sleeping in the back garden of my terrace house in South London. Plus, what with light pollution, I doubt very much if I would have seen many stars!

So In brief...

This week's one hour online meeting included the following items:

Hi Bala

You were asking me about visibility so I will share some thoughts here - in this visible online space. You are interested on behalf of the newly forming Appropriate Power Special Interest Group. I hope what I write here will help not only that group, but also other Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that we may set up later.

Push, pull and park

So, let us look at the Appropriate Power SIG and how we can encourage people to find out about it. For now I am just going to look at some ideas about information flows. Later we should consider what information you have, the kind of people you want to share it with, and what you want them ot do as a result of reading the information. This post is just about visibility and  "pushing","pulling" and "parking" information. 

Visible and invisible

You and I have been emailing about the Appropriate Power SIG for the past week - "pushing" information to each other. Email was a useful and appropriate way to get started - but its disadvantage is that it is invisible to any wider audience. By replying to you through this blog (instead of just sending you an email reply) I am "parking" some information about making the Appropriate Power SIG visible, and I have parked it in a place where other people can easily read it (no need to log in or anything like that).

Once again,Yesterday's online meeting between the UK and Nigeria did not fail to disappoint. As well as addressing the items on the agenda in an informal but business-like way, we had two welcomed treats.

The first treat

 When the team was discussing permaculture and the kitchen garden at Ungwar Masara, the UK were thrilled to be sent a recent video (via Skype chat and from a mobile phone) showing the 850 Jatropa seedlings. These have sinced been moved into the shade to protect them from the current hot conditions that our friends at Fantuam are currently experiencing. The rains are expected in the coming weeks and the seedlings will then be planted so we are hoping that not too many seedlings perish in the interim.

Some of our Nigerian member also shared with the UK, their plans for adopting their own kitchen gardens.

Permaculture, and sustainable local food production is an issue that the Dadamac teams are keen to investigate together.
For additional information about how we plan to do this please read Pam's earlier blog about Kitchen gardens and Jatropha.

The second treat

When we were discussing 'any other business', Bala Bidi (the ZittNet Manager at Fantsuam) shared his interest in exploring how wind energy could be harnessed by installing a small wind turbine on the mast. Cicely, A VSO volunteer, mentioned that she has a friend who is an expert in this field.The outcome of the discussion being that an Appropriate Power Special Interest Group be set up. (This is now currently being established on Dadamac Moodle).

Possible future collaboration